What are FinTech companies?
FinTech (a conflation of the terms financial and technology) encompasses all innovative financial products and services that simplify and accelerate the way we handle money. The term is used for innovative startups that use advanced technology that, unlike traditional money institutions, allow them to offer customers faster and more efficient financial solutions. Moreover, by leveraging technology and the flexible structure of the startup itself, they can be much more responsive to customer needs and new developments in the market.
FinTech startups, the success
The technology-driven startups do not work with service packages the way traditional banks do. They offer products and services separately and then through the digital channel. The advantage of this is that they can market their offerings at a much lower cost, thus significantly increasing their competitiveness. Added to that, the strength of these startups lies in the fact that they are always accessible and work quickly and efficiently. More and more we pay via cell phone. We even apply for credit online and make investments online. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of investment in FinTech and the Dutch startup landscape is bursting with fintech companies that want to change the way we bank, invest and insure.
FinTech companies in the Netherlands
Still the number of companies in the Dutch FinTech sector is increasing. In 2020, there were over 600 FinTech companies operating. When does a company fall within the FinTech sector? The fragmented nature of the industry and the variety of startups offering innovations within financial services makes determining this difficult. NextBI therefore used the definition assigned by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in compiling a list of Dutch FinTech companies: “FinTech is a technology-driven financial innovation that can result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on financial markets, institutions and the provision of financial services.” NextBI’s list is very up-to-date and now consists of more than 400 Dutch FinTech companies!
